


Providence

by Fcrants



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Gen, Will Add As They Appear - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-05
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-04-18 21:12:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14221890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fcrants/pseuds/Fcrants
Summary: Taylor Hebert was given a clean slate. All she had to do was navigate a world that changed overnight.





	Providence

**The Stranger**

A cesspit.

“Isn’t that how this place is usually described,” I mused as I walked down the silent hallway towards my goal. The walls were free from the graffiti I’d come expecting, the people silent and still as I weaved through them dazed by my power. A power I didn’t even want. A second chance I never asked for but now had to live with just because of the whims of some god.

I shook my head out of the rant that was forming and continued walking. I found a crowd at my destination, their laughter silenced as my power took hold. I looked at them and couldn’t bring myself to care, to see them as more than just words on a page. Yet this is where her story starts, these are the people that pushed her over the edge and put her on the path of ruin.

I steeled myself and moved past them, to stop in front of the locker, _her locker,_ and used The Key. A gift, he said, to aid me in my _adventure_ _._ I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all; here I am decrying a god for taking away my choice while doing the same thing to her.

“I’m… I’m sorry. I didn’t want this. I didn’t want any of this.” I said. “But… maybe… maybe if you had a different start you could do more. Maybe you could forge a better life.”

I felt the last of **The Energy** flow into her, hiding her presence from those that could perceive her and severing her connection to her Passenger, rebuilding new ones, all four from The Outsider, freeing her from the shackles that drive the others in this world.

As The Key disintegrates into nothingness, I opened her locker to let her out, catching her and setting her down gently on the floor, cleaning away the filth that clung on her. She looked so young, so fragile. It’s hard to think of the magnitude of the tasks she’d have set for herself, of the burdens that she’d choose to carry. Hopefully, she would never have to bear them.

I let my power work on her, erasing her memory of this morning, unburdening her from the trauma that might pull her down. As I walked away preparing myself for what I have to do I looked back and said, “I hope you have a better life, Taylor Hebert”

\---  
  
Sirens and shouting greeted me as I exited the front doors of Winslow. Good. Someone must have seen me go in and called the authorities. A crowd has formed across the street and the police officers were busy cordoning the area. As I moved forward PRT agents converged in front of me leveling their foam sprayers. My form gave them pause; burnished silver skin and long flowing silver hair, eyes the same featureless silver as my body glowing with a silver light that left a brief trail as I moved.

I walked towards the crowd that had built up. Students, their phones ready, eager to share to the world what’s happening in front of them. I eased on my powers, steadying the crowd but not letting them act against me.

I let them see me, remember me, let the cameras capture my visage and let my presence cause ripples in the consciousness of the world, all so that _he_ can notice me, and I wait. It doesn’t take long for him to arrive; he’s always listening, always watching. A golden light flashes overhead heralding his presence.

“The Warrior Entity, Zion.” I greeted him. “I knew you’d come.”

He looked down from his flight; he radiated sadness and confusion and then outrage starts bubbling up as he sees my form for himself. I pushed my power, making him forget, to delude him for a moment so that he could focus solely on me. He landed in front of me.

“This is not how I imagined you’d look.”

_Query_

I flinched as a single word that carried so much meaning hit me. I tried my best to smile. “I needed to get your attention. I needed you to hear what I had to say”

I sighed in relief as curiosity brims off of him. He’s giving me a chance.  

I took a deep breath and spoke. “I understand what you’re going through. You lost your wife, your partner... and the feeling of helplessness consumes you. Grief and sadness became your very existence. As if it’s your own personal failure for letting that happen.” I took a step forward, cupping his face and letting my power work on him, having him forget his defenses, pushing my power more and more as he forgets about his. “I should know. I lost my other half as well.” A sad smile graced my lips.

“So you fly, aimless, doing what a stranger told you to do, to help out. A forest fire here, a nuclear reactor melting down there, an Endbringer, a cat stuck on a tree” I laughed at the contrast. I drew him closer, lips almost touching. “You could do so much good in this world.”

“But you’re too dangerous” I whispered before pulling him in, kissing him, unleashing all that I have through our connection, as much power as I could muster, erasing his very consciousness, his very being. It was too late when he noticed and started to fight back. He tried to lash out, to sacrifice his simulacrum to break our connection but I knew it was done. As a golden light consumes me, I smile because I know the Warrior is no more.

 

\---

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I saw the CYOA#5 Bet update and thought it would be fun to write a story with it. I didn’t want to write an SI so I thought I’d have an OC die in the prologue to set up the world. This was what I came up with. Hopefully it won't be too bad.


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